Julian Assange is suffering from a mysterious “constant and severe pain” which is growing worse, but he has been denied “safe passage” to a hospital, according to a statement from WikiLeaks.
According to Ricardo Patiño, the Ecuadorean foreign minister, a doctor treating the WikiLeaks founder has said that he needs an MRI scan to discover the cause of the pain which he has had since June.
Mr Patiño said that Ecuador had written to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on September 30 to request that Mr Assange be permitted to go to hospital under conditions agreed by the UK and Ecuador.
“They can guard the car with 10,000 police officers if they wish,” he said. “The safe passage would be for a few hours in order to allow Mr Assange to be able to have medical tests undertaken and in order to diagnose the cause.”
Mr Patiño said the Foreign Office replied on Monday by saying that it “would not permit the safe passage” to hospital.
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On the same day that it replied, police officers were stood down from their 24-hour guard of the Ecuadorean embassy in London, more than three years after Mr Assange entered.
The foreign minister said that even in times of war, safe passage was given for humanitarian reasons to ensure people received medical attention.
WikiLeaks last night said in a statement: “The source of the medical condition can only be diagnosed with hospital equipment that cannot be brought into the embassy due to size and weight.”
A Foreign Office spokesman said: “There is no question that the British authorities would in any way seek to impede Mr Assange receiving medical advice or care, and we have made this clear to the government of Ecuador.”
Asked if Mr Assange would face arrest if he left the embassy to seek medical treatement, the spokesman said: “That would be a matter for the police.”
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Mr Assange sought refuge in the small ground-floor flat after exhausting every available recourse in the British legal system in his battle against extradition to Sweden for questioning in relation to rape and sexual assault allegations.
He insists that he is likely to be further extradited to the US, where he faces charges of sedition and espionage in relation to damaging leaks of military information.